*** De La Soul

ART OFFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: MOSAIC THUMP

(Tommy Boy)

De La Soul's mosaic thump has been consistently less mosaic since the Long Island trio's brilliant 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy). De La were visibly uncomfortable with the "hip-hop hippie" tag, so their sophomore effort, 1991's De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy), featured an overturned flower pot of daises for cover art and saw the De La guys replacing their signature flower-powered rhymes with drab, rant-over-vamp grinds.

Efforts since then have sought equilibrium between these two extremes, meeting at R&B-flavored social-commentary rap. The group's fifth effort, Mosaic Thump, part one of De La's comeback trilogy (it's been four years between records), stakes out a true common ground. On "U Can Do (Life)," "Declaration," and "My Writes," De La flush out their sweet, jazz-tinged hooks with been-around-the-block rhymes and slow-but-strong beats. With some help from their friends, they match modern gangsta rap's aggression without succumbing to its dick-grabbing machismo.

Things get low-riding and dirty when Busta Rhymes joins the party for the overdriven-bass bump of "I.C Y'All." With a string of expletives and his trademark barbed wit, Freddie Foxxx gives support to the group's beat-you-over-the-head anti-gun-toting-MC stance. And on "Squat!" De La play rotating MCs with Beasties Ad Rock and Mike D, the five trading curdled rhymes over big-bottom beats. The "hits" are street-respectable slow jams with sour and staccato flows and after-hours party smoothness. "All Good," boasts a satiny-but-gravelly guest vocal from Chaka Khan, and "Thru Ya City" is based on the main hook from the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City."

-- Lorne Behrman